New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research abstracts

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Forum¹

Room for everyone? Refugia and native biodiversity in New Zealand’s agricultural landscapes

Grant Blackwell^*

Yuki Fukuda^†

Tanja Maegli

Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability
Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin 9054, New Zealand

Catriona J. MacLeod

Landcare Research
PO Box 69
Lincoln 7640, New Zealand

*Present address: Parliamentary Commission for the Environment, PO Box 10241 Wellington 6143, New Zealand.

†Author for correspondence:
yuki_fukuda@hotmail.com

Agricultural intensification can be defined as "any increase in farm inputs or farm production off-takes per unit area of land" (Moller et al. 2008). In Europe and the United States, agricultural intensification has frequently resulted in the homogenisation of farming landscapes as farm sizes, fertiliser inputs and stocking rates have increased and the area of non-productive habitats (such as woody vegetation) has decreased. These significant changes in land management and composition represent a major environmental concern, as they have driven major declines in farmland biodiversity (e.g., Wilson et al. 1999) as well as reductions in ecosystem function and services (Burel & Baudry 1995; Baudry et al. 2000; Stoate et al. 2001). Thus, understanding and mitigating the adverse effects of agricultural intensification has become the focus of much research and management effort.

 

¹The Forum section contains short opinion articles on topics within the scope of the New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research. Forum articles are not refereed, and editing is limited to style matters. They should be no more than the equivalent of 2500 words including references. Articles commenting on a specific paper will be referred to the author(s) of that paper for right of reply before publication. Forum articles should not be cited as scientific papers.

A08045; Online publication date 30 October 2008
Received 16 June 2008

New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 2008, Vol. 51:473–476
0028–8233/08/5104–0473 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2008

PDF file of entire paper: Print-quality (639K)

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